Burgundy Center for Wildlife Studies

Burgundy Farm Country Day School has practiced progressive education since 1946, and in 1966 it extended that mission to 467 acres of farmland near Capon Bridge, West Virginia, creating the Cooper’s Cove Wildlife Sanctuary. Today the Burgundy Center for Wildlife Studies serves as the school’s mountain campus, weaving nature, science, arts, and humanities into the curriculum. Students in grades 1–8 return each fall and spring for overnight programs that grow in freedom and responsibility as they get older, and in summer the center runs one of the nation’s longest-running nature camps for children and adults.

When the main lodge reached the end of its useful life, the school brought on MTFA and Howard Shockey & Sons as a design-build team to reimagine what its replacement could be. MTFA led a Visioning Workshop to discover the design drivers, which was revealed that two smaller buildings would serve the program and its culture better than one. The dining hall gathers campers around a commercial kitchen and shared tables, while the main hall holds a large gathering space, classrooms, a camp store, an infirmary, staff quarters, and the director’s office. Built for four-season use with durable, low-maintenance materials that settle naturally into the landscape, the new buildings extend the center’s reach and leave room for years of growth.